Communities prepare for future wildfires

Driving through Glacier Hills, Rich Baginski is quick to point out the changes he’s helped bring to this gated community near Hungry Horse.

“When we first moved into the neighborhood, we did not have good signage on the roads, so the reflective signs have gone in,” he says. Easy to spot even in poor visibility, they mark most homes and three helicopter landing areas. Pointing to mowed strips along his street, he explains that “We’ve done some work with the developer to widen the accessible area here, so it’s safer for fire trucks to maneuver.”

In advance of future wildfires, Baginski and his neighbors have also created low-flammability buffer zones around houses, increased fuel mitigation work, and gained Firewise certification for their neighborhood. While none of these steps will prevent future wildfires, Glacier Hills residents hope they’ll protect their houses when one breaks out.

“It takes a lot of time to go through and do the work that needs to be done,” another resident, Jerry Jones, told the Daily Inter Lake. “So the time to get started is now, not when the fire’s already breathing at your back door.”

Baginski had little experience with fire management when he moved here from Cincinnati in 2010.

At a Tuesday event organized by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, he told attendees that his work in the area began when he asked Rick Moore, one of the department’s service foresters, to prepare a Wildfire Risk and Forestry Health Assessment, a free service offered to homeowners.

Based on his recommendations, Baginski, who calls himself the “sparkplug” for this effort, began fuel mitigation work. A once-dense thicket in front of his house is now a thin stand of trees.

Other homeowners took notice. By 2014, 92 percent of Glacier Hills properties had received similar assessments. The following year, its homeowners’ association established a “Firewise Advisory Team.”

The National Fire Protection Agency awards Firewise status to communities that obtain risk assessments, use them to form action plans, and take other fire preparation steps.

Fifteen Montana locales have earned the designation. Glacier Hills joined their ranks in 2016 and continues to thin the neighborhood of potential fuel.